Recognize risks. Understanding interrelations.

The General Concept of BeLOVE

The Berlin Longterm Observation of Vascular Events Study (BeLOVE) is an observational patient based clinical cohort study of patients with existing cardiovascular disease (including acute cerebrovascular disorder, acute coronary syndrome, acute heart failure, and acute kidney injury will be included, together with patients without an index event but a comparably increased risk to develop a cardiovascular event. Patients are enrolled on occasion of an acute event in association with hospitalisation at Charité or within the Charité outpatient clinics for the reference group.

Aim

The aim of BeLOVE to improve short- and long-term prediction and mechanistic understanding of cardiovascular disease progression and outcomes in these very high risk patients, both in the acute as well as in the chronic phase, in order to provide the basis for improved, individualized management.

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of premature death worldwide with multiple forms of organ dysfunction, comorbidities, impaired health-related quality of life as well as frailty and dependency in the elderly. Patients experiencing an acute vascular event are at very high risk for subsequent events affecting the same or other organs. This patient group has a heavy disease burden and consumes a large proportion of health care resources. However, despite the overall poor prognosis, individual courses are highly variable, suggesting a yet poorly understood complexity of the underlying pathomechanisms that determine either recovery and stabilization or Progression.

Design

The BeLOVE cohort will study this high-risk patient group in an innovative, interdisciplinary research concept. In total, 10.000 patients, the majority of which are hospitalized at Charité, will be included acutely with an index event due to acute cerebrovascular disorder, acute coronary syndrome, acute heart failure, and acute kidney injury, together with patients without an index event but a comparably increased risk to develop a cardiovascular event.

Patients will be thoroughly phenotyped directly following the index event and then after both 90 days and 2 years of follow-up. Planned maximal followed for up is 10 years.

Infrastructure

BeLOVE is fully embedded in the existing infrastructure of the BIH, Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Core Facilities of the BIH including the Clinical Study Center (CSC) as well as the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). At the same time, BeLOVE can serve as a use case for many projects in the field of infrastructure development and thus form the basis for further translational research projects.